Pizza Making at Bunga Bunga Battersea

Pizza Making at Bunga Bunga Battersea

Monday, 4 October 2021

If like me, you're not one to wait for the weekend, then Bunga Bunga is the place for a little midweek fun.

They've got party pizza venues in both southwest London and Covent garden but my local, in Battersea closes on a Wednesday night in favour of educating the locals on the art of pizza making.

We were the first ones in and quickly made ourselves comfortable. I'd never been to Bunga Bunga before but I already knew I'd like to come back within ten minutes of arriving. Even empty, I loved the vibe; and the quirky and cool Italian decor. I just knew it was going to be a fun place to spend a Friday.

I decided that it was not going to be a quiet Wednesday night so after our welcome drinks, we ordered a bottle of prosecco which arrived just in time to be enjoyed with a plate of antipasti - the perfect accompaniment!

The classes are £35pp and they have a bottomless option for £55 but for the amount I drink, bottomless is hardly ever worth it so a bottle between the two of us was great! 

Nathan was our awesome host for the evening and he and Chef John made everyone feel very comfortable. They did a great job in getting everyone involved whilst bouncing off each other all evening - they were a huge part of why we had such a great time.

After watching how it was done, we donned our aprons and had a go at making the dough ourselves. Quite a simple task but alot of fun to get stuck in to plus the simplicity meant I had one hand spare to drink with whilst I mixed the pre-measured ingredients with the other, an impressive skill I know. 

Whilst our dough was bagged up ready to take home, we were given a pre-proved ball to stretch into shape and smother with toppings.

I swapped David his veg for my pepperoni and off they went to the oven - only to be demolished within seconds of coming out.

Somehow our table won 'best dough' (must have been my one handed dough rolling) which meant a round of shots to finish the an already super evening!

The pizza making was not particularly skillful or insightful but this was one of the most entertaining and enjoyable cookery classes I've ever done. We were first to arrive and last to leave so that should tell you something.

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Crust Bros at Sambrooks Brewery, Wandsworth

Crust Bros at Sambrooks Brewery, Wandsworth

Monday, 6 September 2021

Known for their signature leopard-spotted crusts and incredible bottomless pizza deals, Crust bro's are now, no longer a one store entity.

Having hit it big time with their Waterloo location, they've recently taken over the kitchen at Sambrook's Brewery and added Wandsworth's Ram Quarter to their repertoire. Excellent, a 4 minute walk from my front door.

Cleary, it is a great location for me but not just because it's so close. The outdoor space is an awesome place to spend a warm summers evening because it's set still within the walls of The Ram Quarter. That means no disturbance from the outside world (namely the road traffic and people milling about aimlessly) which makes a huge difference to the vibe. It has a very relaxed and friendly feel which, of course is lovely.

We ended up wandering past on opening night a few weeks back and it has been busy every time I've walked past since; our Friday night visit was no different. We grabbed one end of a bench - I sat on the left so I could look at the dog on the next table - and ordered via the app. 

They have the option for fully customisable pizzas but actually, the selection on the menu was far too tempting to bypass. David went for the 'straight outta hell' pizza which provided a kick of heat in the form of spicy njuda. A high rating from someone who eats more pizza than anyone else I know.

I had the 'Nonnas Yard' which turned out to be the pizza I didn't know I needed. It was covered in all of my favourite things so it's safe to say I enjoyed it. Mushrooms, caramelised onions and goats cheese with a generous pesto swirl - such a unique pizza topping but flavours that just inherently work well together. The distinctive, herby pesto cut through the sweet onions and creamy cheese and brought it all together perfectly. Paired with a glass of prosecco and I was a happy bunny. 

Everything came out at the same time so whilst we were working through those, we also had a burrata and bruschetta to attend to.

I order burrata at every given opportunity and the Crust Bros one always stands out. This is the third one I've had here and they are just so consistently good. Sat on a pile of seasoned tomatoes which were a well-received accompaniment - and also the topping for the bruschetta we ordered.  

We didn't really need dessert but declining a Nutella pizza was a hard no so we had to make room. Luckily, it wasn't a full-sized pizza so eating it wasn't too much trouble. Very indulgent but it was Friday night after all so why not?

*Invite

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Pizza Express Spring 16 Menu

Pizza Express Spring 16 Menu

Friday, 13 May 2016

It's a well known fact that nowadays, I love Pizza Express - and I got particularly excited when I saw what they had in store for Spring 2016 - some of my all time favorites! So I booked up a table and as with most of my Pizza Express reviews, I brought Georgia along to try the new menu with me! I know she likes it there and they are really good with keeping their food gluten free so its perfect for us!

First things first - drinks! I really enjoy drinking prosecco at Pizza Express, it tastes good and its a really great price, I think its something like £26 for a bottle which isnt bad at all! Georgia's turned into a cliche Londoner and ordered a G&T.

OK, First course. Did you know that they finally have gluten free doughballs? Georgia didn't and she got so excited when I asked her if she was going to order them this time! I always go for doughballs and although I don't have what you would call a full blown gluten intolerance, it definitely doesn't agree with me. I love trying new things so of course we both ordered them. I was super interested to see if they would be as good and in all honesty, they weren't as good as normal doughballs but they weren't bad at all. They arrived bigger than the normal ones and were much more fluffy inside whereas the usual ones are quite dense. Georgia told me how she didn't feel like she was missing out anymore so that was lovely!

I had been thinking about the Hawaiian pizza all week as it's my number one favourite topping but when I actually looked at it on the menu, I realised that it was just a pineapple chutney, not chunks like my old favourite. I was soon distracted by the new risotto on the menu and ordered that instead!

I dont think I really realised what Risotto was until last year but I love rice so I never looked back after accidentally buying one in Pret once. So yes, Risotto is still super new for me, and I was curious to try a new flavour, this one was fish based - white wine, salmon and garlic! The rice was thick and creamy and very cheesey but what I liked best about this dish was that the salmon was crumbled and mixed into the rice. Topped with fresh tomato and paisley, it is now one of my favourite dishes!

Georgia went for the Leggera Superfood Salad with extra salmon which is a brand new salads under 500 calories. The plate was huge when it arrived but she said it was a little heavy on the leaves and a little short on the superfood which is a shame although with the extra salmon, it was more than filling!

Now for dessert! Passion fruit has become one of my absolute favorite flavours over the past year - I love its bright colour, crunchy seeds and tartness so to spot another of my favourite on the menu was pretty excited! The dessert was called Passionate Mess so we assumed it would be some kind of Eton Mess style but when it arrived, it actually looked like a slice of lemon meringue pie with soft chewy meringue on top and a biscuit base underneath. As expected, I loved the passionfruit flavour but I think there was just a bit too much of it which I was shocked about! I still finished it off though so it wasnt that bad haha

Have You Tried Pizza Express' Spring Menu?

*Our food was complimentary in return for this review. All opinions at my own. 

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LIFESTYLE: Pizza Express Autumn Menu 2015

LIFESTYLE: Pizza Express Autumn Menu 2015

Wednesday, 14 October 2015

Georgia is finally in London. After travelling for the past few years, shes just finished her degree and shes back. I thought I'd better take advantage before she decides to up and leave again so on Friday night we went out for dinner and cocktails in Soho. 

She is gluten free and sometimes its hard to find somwhere to go, especially when I dont completely understand it but I knew that Pizza Express were great at working around that so it was the perfect place for us. We went to the one on Greek Street and it was so buzzy with people the whole way though the night! We would know - we ended up staying there for three hours eating, drinking and catching up. 

We started with a glass of processo each and a couple of new dishes from the menu. I went for the calamari which I had heard so much about - they are really pushing it on their social media so seeing it in my newsfeed a few times made me really want to try it. They were lovely and not greasy at all which was nice as sometime calamari can be a bit slimy. Georgia went for the mushroom risotto which she said was really good too. 

Next up I decided to be difficult and order the new Napoletana  pizza with extra chicken and leggera style (with the midle cut out and replaced with salad) of course it was lovely with big fresh lettuce leaves and juicy tomatoes in the middle and chicken, anchovies, olives and all the stuff I love on the pizza itself. 

Georgia is a bit of a cheese addict so she went for the new Formaggi. Now I love toppings on a pizza but that looked delicious overflowing with cheese. 

While we waited for dessert we had some more prosecco and a good gossip, the night went so quickly which was mad considering we were there for that long. 

For dessert, Georgia went for the good old gluten free brownie with a scoop of raspberry sorbet (which I ate most of haha, I love sorbet at the moment) and I had two scoops of the new gelato flavours Salted Caramel with toffee pieces and Chocolate Brownie with soft brownie pieces. Both delicious!

After another glass of prosecco, we decided it was probably time to make a move although we didnt get far haha we ended up drinking cocktails in the bar next door!

Have You Tried The New Pizza Exppress Menu?

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LIFESTYLE: Friday Night With Papa Johns

LIFESTYLE: Friday Night With Papa Johns

Monday, 10 August 2015

On Friday (the night before our first friends wedding) Andrew and I decided to have a quiet night in to relax and prepare for the big day. He was best man after all and he was getting super stressed already. So it was amazing when Papa Johns got in touch earlier in the week to see if we wanted to have a night in on them!

Papa John’s has become the first pizza chain in the UK to offer a no-quibble promise to provide a free-of-charge replacement pizza if customers are not entirely satisfied with their order.

Neither of us had ever tried Papa Johns before so we just ordered everything.The pizza arrived right on time - which happened to be at the same time as Terry, the groom, with the wedding suit for Andrew to try on so he ended up opening the door to the delivery guy in a wedding suit haha.

Once everyone had left and the suits were all packed up, out of pizza sauce reach, we sat down and scoffed it all. The food all stayed hot in its box which we were pretty pleased about. I had a plain cheese and tomato pizza, feeling pretty unadventurous but its a classic so its fine! Andrew had a BBQ chicken with stuffed crust - I did steal a few crusts off of him in the end haha love a stuffed crust. The starters were my favourite part - we got chicken bits and chicken wings both super tasty.

As well as feeding us, they also sent us a couple of DVDs, some wine and some popcorn. So when all of Andrews family got in we sat down and put on The Wedding Ringer. Good Timing!

Have Your Tried Papa Johns Before?

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LIFESTYLE: Pizza Express January 2015

LIFESTYLE: Pizza Express January 2015

Monday, 2 February 2015

In 2014, Andrew and I fell back in love with Pizza Express! Although they are constantly adding new things to the menu (which is definitely a good thing) you always know that you are going to get good, tasty food, whatever it is, a nice clean restaurant and good service!

Last week was the first time we had been since the latest menu update so we wanted to try as many new dishes as we could fit into one meal! We usually stay local with them since they are everywhere but this time we opted to try one just behind Oxford street on Langham Place.

Obvs we started with the starters (duh) and Leggera Gamberetti Piccante caught both of our eyes. Neither of us could bear to give up our dough balls so we decided to get a plate each as well as the new prawn dish to share. Very tasty with tomatoes and garlic - it was definitely our kind of starter and it's also part of the Leggera range which means it's low calorie. woo January detox!

Pizza express is the best restaurants for me to pick a healthy option and still really enjoy it! I usually have a salad which is always filling but every now and then I go for a Leggera pizza. Basically, it's a pizza with the center cut out and filled with salad instead so I still get my pizza but just half the guilt! 

I went for the Leggera Pomodoro Pesto which comes with mozzorella and pesto and I added chicken and anchovies on top. Anchovies on everything. Yum

Andrew went for the Calzone Classico which is also new on the menu. It was filled with four different Italian meats, cheese, tomatoes, spinach and all. I've never had a calzone before but it did look pretty tasty! I loved how both meals came served up on a black slate! Classy

We also spotted a new side that we had to try. I think Andrew only mentioned it because he liked saying the name haha it was called Broccolini. Pieces of broccoli cooked with garlic butter - I was happy enough to share it with him, they were very nice and I'm always looking to add greens to my meal that actually taste nice is always good. Of course I had dessert while Andrew got himself another glass of prosecco which is usual for us. It's hard to pass up dessert especially when there was a new one that had to be tried! The Honeycomb Cream Slice. omg. honeycomb and chocolate pieces mixed into cream all sat on a biscuit base smothered in salted caramel. It was delicious!

Have You Been To Pizza Express Lately?

*Pizza Express kindly covered the meal in return for my review. All opinions are 100% honest. I love Pizza Express
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